Dirty little secrets...

Well, I didn't get nearly enough hobby time over the holiday period due to not actually been sober enough to to focus on anything smaller than my hand! Hobby gifts were slim on the ground this year too (a pack of D6 and a pair of slippers to keep me warm while painting in the garage).

I did manage to get a few mini's painted and due to having a nice eclectic mix primed up ready I was able to pick and choose any and experiment with the painting, ending up with this crew. All ready for a small skirmish or a shooty game of Blasters and Bulkheads.

Just before we get to the new year I thought i'd clear up my work space in the garage, while cleaning away I kept finding more and more mini's just forgotten about or half finished in boxes. Which leads me to one of wargamings little secrets (or not so secret), pretty much no one can keep up with the demand of releases coming out, just trying to get one army painted and based can take years not allowing for all the shiny items that come out in between. I'm guilty of it as much as anyone, having multiple projects on the go and still keeping one eye on ebay/news sites for any good deals.

So, having a good tidy up allowed me to take stock of what I've got and to start planning out the projects for the year, only problem is they don't look that many, I keep convincing myself I can run more! I have included my 28mm projects here too, just to give myself a written reminder of what I proposed:

• Vostroyan Army (28mm): Almost, almost there with this, been working on it for about two years and i'm down to the last ten man squad and two vehicles to finish, then it's basing and I will have completed a 1000 point all metal vostroyan troop force. :)

• Ork Army (28mm): This one has been collecting dust for awhile, still needs a few characters and vehicles painting (the warbikes finally killed it for me in the end, I hated trying to build and paint these so they ended back in the box).

• Battlefleet Gothic/Full Thrust: Still need a couple of ships to complete my BFG chaos fleet and start getting it on the table, some of the Full thrust ships look mighty tasty too....I have also started drafting out a one page ruleset for space combat.

• Wood Elves (28mm): Another one bought on a whim for a game i'm very unlikely to play, about halfway ish through painting these but still a way to go, a nice distraction now and then.

• Mantic - Kings of war/Warpath (28mm): Big fan of Mantic and what they do, I picked up the Kings of War starter last summer and tried to do an intense 3 week speed paint of the whole box (over 100 minis!), it quite literally broke me and it has been sat back on the shelf in shame. Good learning experience though, and with the Warpath starter showing up for as little as £30 now with two full armies and rules I might be tempted again.......

• Adeptus Titanicus: I used to love this and the Titan models, unfortunately sold them all a few years ago. Now on the lookout to try and pick up some new minis and build a titan order.

• Rogue Trader: Another ruleset I really miss, would love to pick up another copy of this and a few RT era mini's for small RPG skirmishes. Along with a possible Iron Hands/Adeptus army.

anyway on to the 15mm:

• USNC army: Picked up a fair few more mini's and vehicles for the USNC, still going to paint them in a sci fi red colour scheme but I want to experiment with some more realistic looks.

• Mech Detachments: I've a few mech minis to paint up and I was inspired by the recent release of the Imperator (which looks great) and the number of complaints about it's cost to see how many different mechs suitable to 15mm I could source for £20, managed to find some interesting specimens which I hope to paint up and blog soon.

• Cultist/Mechanicus: Got a few packs of the cultist mini's from 15mm.co.uk (they look a little off scale to me? wonder if it's the large bases they are on) and they look ripe for converting into a Mechanicus cult troop with robotic arms etc. the cyborg enslavers that came free with this order should go well with these too.

• Characters: A big mass of individual character models to paint here, I loved painting what I got so far so expect these to be high up on the priority list.

• Alien troops: From Mercenaries to Crusties, lots and lots to paint up.

• Redemptionist force: Fair few of these to get stuck in to, having a few problems seeing the details on some of the models but I might just try some painting experiments and see how it goes. Also the 15mm.co.uk site has just updated with new pics for the Laserburn range, looking a lot better.

• Terrain/Terrain/Terrain: bane of my life, must admit I do not like making terrain but I still have all the scatter terrain from before and the main boards to finish. Ho hum.

Phew! that felt pretty epic working through it all, but all going well I should be able to knock each one off the list in good time......